Irene's "Body Memories" is about pain that lingers in the body long after the event itself. The speaker addresses someone who was her "first," and the poem suggests that this person hurt her badly. She can still feel the aching ribs, the memory of being kicked, and a stabbing pressure in her throat. She avoids putting these sensations into words, because naming them would bring back the panic she felt at the time.
The poem keeps returning to money: "afford," "pocket book," "emotional bankruptcy." Judging by this imagery, the speaker feels her emotional resources are nearly spent, and another collapse would be more than she can bear. The visual memories are worse still, since there is nowhere to look to escape them.
The mood is tense, tired, and anxious. The short, repetitive lines read like someone trying to hold herself together. The last line, "I can't afford to break again," is blunt and quietly desperate.